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Never again will the New Albany-Plain school district enter into a financial deal like the
interest-rate swap that it paid $6.1 million to get out of this year, according to a policy
approved by the district’s school board last night.

Under a policy with six stipulations that was passed unanimously, it will be difficult, though
not impossible, to refinance district debt in ways other than traditional methods spelled out in
state law. It specifically forbids so-called “synthetic refunding” and requires the district’s
finance committee to review any plan to refinance debt.

District officials designed the rule at the request of the school board, none of whose members
was on the board when the district signed the agreement in 2007.

The policy’s goal is to strike a balance between banning exotic deals without limiting district
officials from “taking advantage of conservative and fiscally responsible” options, board President
Laura Kohler said after the meeting.

In 2007, amid what were low interest rates at the time, the district signed a deal with the
Belgian bank Dexia, essentially selling some of the district’s debt to the bank for $1.1 million
and locking in interest rates.

The bonds were too new at the time to be refinanced under traditional methods. But when interest
rates fell even lower, the district was stuck paying more than if officials had waited for a
typical refinancing, so in March the district paid $6.1 million to terminate the agreement.

Still, school administrators maintain that it was a good deal for the district.

Along with the new policy, the board is working to hire the state auditor to look into the
interest-rate swap.

Also at the meeting, the board voted unanimously to pass along two levy and bond combinations
for consideration by the county auditor. Board members plan to choose a final option on Monday for
the November ballot.

Both options would include a 4.24-mill operating levy that would last the district two years.
The bond options to go with it are a $41 million issue that, combined with the levy, would cost
$202 more annually per $100,000 of home value, or a $45 million issue that would cost $209 more a
year if it passed.

The board unanimously rejected two options with the same bond options that were combined with a
7.68-mill levy and would have been for three years. Board members said the economy is too weak to
ask taxpayers for that much.

Administrators say they need the bond money for a new building to house a rapidly growing
student population on a campus that’s already cramped.

Although Treasurer Brian Ramsay was absent, board members thanked him for his work while voting
to accept his resignation. After 17 years in the district, he will leave next month to become
treasurer of Westfall schools, near Circleville.

His $125,000 annual salary at Westfall will be $15,000 less than what he earned in the 2011-12
school year at New Albany, but it is $40,000 more than what his predecessor earned.

Westfall was looking for an experienced treasurer to orchestrate a service-sharing deal with
another district, said Westfall Superintendent Cara Riddel, head of human resources at New
Albany-Plain schools in 2011.

“We recruited him because we were looking for a veteran treasurer with experience and with a
pattern of stability,” she said.